I’ve recently sung in a couple of performances at St. Mary’s Bathwick (which I’ve been told was visited last year by the Ship of Fools’ Mystery Worshipper).
First up was Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang with orchestra, performed in aid of the organ fund at an all-Mendelssohn concert. I’ve never sung this before, apart from once doing the duet ‘I waited for the Lord’ as a communion anthem. Some of the choral writing was surprisingly hard work, especially in the long chorus ‘The night is departing’, where there were pages on end with only the odd (fast) quaver rest to catch your breath. I think the two soprano soloists get much of the nicest music. The text has a very generic feel to it, although it is biblical. This was partly because we were singing it in the Novello edition’s translation which is adapted to fit the rhythms of Luther’s German as originally set. But I noticed that (apart from some Trinitarian formulae in the doxology of ‘Nun danket’) there is no reference to any New Testament doctrine, or indeed to any biblical event.
I was back a week later to sing in the patronal festival evensong, where I reacquainted myself with ‘Sing we merrily’ by Sidney Campbell.
My next performance is a concert at St. Mary Redcliffe on September 25th (8 p.m.) with the Exultate Singers; Viva! – a programme of music from or about Spain & Latin America.
I didn’t go to your preformance, but on behalf of the parish community of St Mary the Virgin, I’d like to say thank you!
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(The review on MW doesn’t accuratly describe our normal sunday worship though)
Actually from what I recall the Mystery Worshipper was very complimentary about some of the singing at St Mary’s (‘Which bit reminded you of heaven?’), less so about what happened to her over coffee after the service!